


A Meeting Most Unusual

by gacrux



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Gen, set shortly after tiedoll takes kanda under his wing, they're somewhere in europe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 14:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6614077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gacrux/pseuds/gacrux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, the one where Kanda meets Allen long before he arrives at the Order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Meeting Most Unusual

**Author's Note:**

> A headcanon that begged to be written. Enjoy?

“Ah, someone seems to have picked my pocket!” Froi smiles dumbly at the waitress, come to pick up their tab for the night, hands still scouring his coat pockets in vain. The woman stares at him, polite smile frozen in place on her lips. Froi is unfazed. “Is it fine if I wait here while my nephew goes and finds it? It shouldn't take long.”

Kanda stiffens in his seat and catches Tiedoll aiming a discreet wink his way. Like he's just been let in on some great plan, of which Kanda wants absolutely no part. The waitress looks between he and his master and then nods slowly, a clear judgment of character, and tells Tiedoll he's not to move from that spot until Kanda returns with payment. She also insists he buys another drink, which Tiedoll has no qualms with doing.

When she retreats Kanda turns to face Tiedoll with a scowl.

“What the hell!?”

“Language, Yu.”

“What the _heck_.” He complies, dry as a bone.

“You're looking for a boy around your age with brown hair, a white shirt, cloth shoes, and a malformed arm. He took my wallet just as we were leaving the alley a block down the street, and I suspect he lives around there so you shouldn't have to look very hard.” The man informs him enigmatically. Kanda makes a face at him, ready to fire off with more questions, demands, complaints, until Tiedoll looks away. “Yes, I let him take it. Sometimes a bit of generosity can go a long way, Yu. Now, off you go! Before the waitress gets too suspicious.”

Conversation closed. Kanda scowls as he collects Mugen and makes for the door, his Order jacket hanging off his waist. It had been quite warm in the tavern, lit by candles and lanterns and even a crackling hearth built into one of the walls. Outside it's chillier, but not by much. Not by Kanda's standards anyway, but he runs at slightly warmer temperatures according to the nurses back at the Order. So he slinks along from shadow to shadow, making his way back to the very same alley he and Tiedoll had exited onto the main street from earlier. Honestly, the whole run-in seemed weird at the time but Kanda hadn't had reason to say anything. Now it makes sense. Over the course of six months Kanda has come to know his master as an absurdly generous, giving person. Not unlike what he understands of Christian saints. Tiedoll does things like this from time to time to make a point to Kanda about the importance of small kindnesses or something. Not that Kanda gives a fuck.

Except for that time with the cat. He still wishes he could have kept that cat. He knows he could have taken care of it, but Tiedoll insisted there were no animals allowed at the Order, so he couldn't. He later found out his master is a stinking liar, because he's _seen_ Claude Nine with her weird monkey pet with his own two eyes.

The alley smells as gross as it did upon first entry an hour or so ago. It might have gotten worse, actually. Kanda scowls even harder and stalks through it, peering into every crack between buildings, any nook or cranny that could potentially shelter a thief. He prowls up and down the place, checks the subsequent roads and their alleys, and after some time eventually decides he's just not going to find the kid. Which is a problem, because his master is waiting at the tavern expecting him to come back with his wallet. Why is this his job again? This _sucks_.

“Looking for this?”

Kanda whips around and sees nothing in his immediate vicinity. The hell?

“Up here, dumbass.” He follows the echo of condescension to find a boy – yes, _the_ boy, judging by his gimpy arm – crouched atop a clothesline with the his master's wallet pinched between his thumb and forefinger.

Kanda delivers him a scowl and makes his demands: “Give it back.”

“Give it back? Why should I? What will you give me in return?” The boy is toying with him. It's in his eyes, shrewd and grey and unreadable as they are.

“I'll let you leave with your life.” Kanda suggests, hand clenched around Mugen's hilt. The boy tilts his head back, rolling his eyes sky-high. It's hard being on the receiving end of such pointed scorn, Kanda realizes. He thinks after this he might try to be less disrespectful to Tiedoll, even though the old man never seems to care.

“Right, but I'm up here and you're down there, and I could just bail.” The kid reminds him, standing on the clothesline like it's some kind of trapeze. What a freak. Kanda, in response, does the only thing he deems reasonable in the heat of the moment. He throws Mugen like a javelin, straight at the clothesline, and grins with satisfaction as it scores through its mark.

“Fuck!” The boy yelps as his footing is cut out from under him.

_Oh right,_ he thinks. The kid is falling now, and it's no short distance to the ground. Kanda curses under his breath and throws himself forward to try and at least save the kid from permanent injury. Jesus. Why doesn't he ever think these things through? Tiedoll is right, he plays the fool too often. The kid lands half in his arms, half in a heaping pile of trash, and Kanda goes right with him. The boy wheezes a curse and heaves himself onto his hands and knees, irate.

“Are you insane?” The boy snaps as soon as he has his breath back. Kanda shoots him a glare as he goes to collect Mugen, a little shaky from the adrenaline but none the worse for wear.

“You were standing on a clothesline, how is that not asking for it?” Kanda retorts.

“God, I dunno, maybe because nobody asks for some snot-nosed brat to try and _murder them?_ ”

“You stole my teacher's wallet! That's asking for it! And I was _not_ trying to murder you!”

“Oh please, if anything _he_ was asking for it. Damn thing was practically dangling out of his pocket, if I hadn't grabbed it somebody else would've!”

“That's an excuse?”

“No, that's how we polite folk say 'fuck you'. Fuck you, by the way.”

Kanda has never, up to this point in his life, met anyone more crass. He's also never been so furious before. This fucking beansprout thinks he can trash-talk anyone he wants after stealing their wallet and having his ass handed to him. Kanda thinks it's about time for an attitude adjustment. He raises Mugen with eyes full of intent but the kid is _laughing_. Snickering. The little shit.

A shadow falls over Kanda and the kid goes abruptly still across from him, all mirth in his eyes evaporated. Kanda doesn't wonder what's behind him, he already knows. It's been a bit of an adventure learning the different types of presences, auras, and intents from people and creatures alike. This is one type of presence, however, that he's never needed coaching to recognize. His Innocence reacts before he does.

He turns and he sees a human, but he knows better. Kanda buries Mugen up to the hilt in the akuma's body, face impassive. He's gotten shit from Tiedoll for being so apathetic, but he can't force himself to feel what's not there. He does not pity the akuma, and he does not pity the man who falls to the ground, dagger still clenched between his spidery fingers, eyes screamingly wide open.

The boy has wandered over, and Kanda can't hide his surprise. Who the fuck is this kid? Any normal person would have run shrieking in the other direction, and rightly so.

“I knew this guy.” The boy says. He shoves Tiedoll's wallet into Kanda's pocket, grey eyes on the corpse. “He caused a lot of trouble around here. He... well, fuck, guess it doesn't matter now. You've done the world a favour, church boy.”

Kanda thinks to rebuke him, but someone is standing at the opposite end of the alley. He thinks to be on guard, but the boy is waving at him.

“Allen,” The figure calls, steeped in shadows. “It's time to go now.”

The boy pauses as he's turning to leave, eyes on Kanda. He looks, curiously, like he wants to say something. Kanda waits but all Allen does is smile enigmatically, the kind of expression Kanda's come to expect and despise from Tiedoll, and then he's walking away.

“Yeah, you're welcome, beansprout!” Kanda offers to his retreating back. In return he gets Allen's middle finger, which he fully expected. Somehow, it feels like a proper goodbye.


End file.
